Just as an aside: 2 weeks ago we travelled on Amtrak's Empire Builder, Seattle to Chicago (well, we got off in Glenview, a suburb). Got the bedroom-- the one with the en suite shower and essentially a bunk bed for 2. Slept well, had a nice NY Strip steak both nights, and was totally awed by the...
Essentially, three major developments in the 50's and 60's killed the passenger trains in the US.
1. Development of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway network.
2. Emergence of jet aircraft allowing lower priced travel by air (and of course, federal, state, and local funding of airport...
Everyone has their Happy Place as a kid, I'm sure. This was mine. The Chicago, Aurora and Elgin was an electric interurban that abruptly halted passenger service on July 3, 1957... leaving many commuters stranded without a ride home. Wayne, Illinois, was the venue of what my family called, "the...
I traced my paternal line back to the 1600's of what is now Germany, and the names Lorenz (Lawrence) and Johann (John) seem to pop up in every generation. My Dad was John, as was his dad.. but he felt that laying that on me was not acceptable. Mom's brother wanted to name me Terry after then...
Never knew my paternal grandmother: she died in childbirth when my dad was three. He ended up being dropped off at an orphanage in the middle of the night by a father (dear old grand dad) who would promise to visit on birthdays and never did- because skirt chasing and boozing was a higher...
Has this been mentioned before? Items related to the railroads. A few:
* cabooses behind freight trains;
* abandoned but still standing small town train depots;
* freight cars lettered for "fallen flag" (lines no longer operating under their old name) railroad companies;
* five man freight...
I can only speak for myself... but having been officially retired for nearly 4 years (and not even working out of my home since December) I can describe retirement with one simile: you are 11 years old again, and every day is like that warm June morning that was the first day of a long 3 month...
And what is often forgotten is that education ought to be a life's long process. A good education teaches one the scientific method and other means of acquiring and processing learned knowledge. That goes on- or at least ought to- long after you're handed that sheepskin.
I have to fight the...
I only play the multistate lotteries when the jackpot tops $100 million. Well aware of the fact that I've a snowball's chance in hell of actually winning... but it's worth a five or a ten to nurse the fantasy for a few days.
As far as gambling in general, my wife and I set foot in a casino a...
Well, that really is part and parcel of a serious study of it. As anyone active in certain threads in the FL can attest. Of course I try to keep a wary eye for crackpot conspiracy theories and such, and avoid dead end bunny trails that the lunatic fringe seems to wallow in. But even keeping it...
Grammar.
Rhetoric.
Logic.
Arithmetic.
Geometry.
Music.
Astronomy.
Those were, traditionally, regarded as the seven liberal arts. A good secondary school education should present the tools for mastery of all of them- and I'd submit that any decent baccalaureate program (no matter the...
I created quite the scandal among my ethnic Irish- American family when, at age 17 and while still enrolled in a Jesuit prep school, I renounced my Catholicism for Evangelical Protestantism. That played out for about 12 years, and I eventually settled in as a mainline (PCUSA) Presbyterian...
The s.o.b. could have at least taught you how to master a bank shot.
Seriously, you'd have done better with my dad. World War II combat vet, Chicago firefighter and union carpenter, but he was always gentle and tender with my little sister. The kind of a guy who could build a 4 bedroom house...
I never touched coffee until I was 27, out of law school, and working a midnight shift for a job which I was vastly overqualified... while working a day job in my field- technically as an attorney- for minimum wage. It kept me going- "addictive" or otherwise.
I'm current Master of my Masonic Lodge. Two of my favorite lodge brothers are ex-pat Brits, and I want them to help organize a weekend event called, "Take Me Out to the Cricket Pitch." Watch a match in the area (there are a number of teams, amazingly.), explain the play, and then retire to a...
Got to meet then- President Johnson in the Cabinet Room of the White House in 1967. Sat in the chair of Defense Sec. Robert McNamera while waiting for him to arrive. I was 12 years old and a member of a men & boys choir: our White House visit was arranged by a local Congressman who knew LBJ from...
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